Operating the Caledonian Railway

Operating the Caledonian Railway

Volume One

Engineers provided equipment and accountants provided the money, but it was the traffic men who put everything together and made a railway run coherently. Their art lay in understanding and exploiting the capacity of their railway, mastering fluctuations in traffic, deploying resources, coordinating staff, and facing passengers and freight customers. ‘Operating’ the railway was – and remains – a far-reaching and complex task. What were the correct dimensions of a train? How was the timetable compiled? Who or what was a ‘leader’? Who planned the troop train in the Quintinshill accident? With half a century of experience in the railway industry, the author sets out to explain how things were done on the Caledonian Railway and how its methods compared with others. For students wishing to understand how railways really functioned, the two volumes in this series will provide a different insight by fleshing out theory with real-life, down-to-earth practice on a major railway.